Friday, January 2, 2015

The Deccan Steel Cap Masterpiece – a 2014 year-end model from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2015 ... 


An unscheduled visit to Deccan Pens, Secunderabad branch, to buy some stationery items, yielded a big surprise on the last day of 2014 … and a new pen for the new year…

I was visiting Deccan Pens after a long long time and Zubair was very effusive in his welcome and before I could ask for things I wanted to buy, he asked me if I had seen their latest model and if Wasimbhai at Abids branch had shown me their latest creation … I said no and told him that I had visited their Abids branch a couple of months ago and Wasimbhai hadn’t spoken about a new model … he then took out this fountain pen from inside the steel cupboard and showed it to me … it was their very sturdy and very popular Masterpiece model, and this one was with a steel cap … ‘pure’ stainless steel, Zubair said … the first thing I noticed was the clip … most of the times, the clips on Deccan pens are straightforward … I can remember only the clip on Author being slightly ornamental … the clip on this pen was ever so slightly ornamental at the top and also curves down ending in a kind of teardrop …

I opened the pen and the cap felt very heavy … really heavy … I had my  Deccan brushed Masterpiece in my pocket and when I compared the weights of the caps just by holding each cap in either palm, I could sense the heaviness …

The pen is a green and black combination with steel on the cap adding the ‘steel’ … the pen looks sturdy and the cap is very well done … the green is actually military green and my personal opinion is that steel goes well with green … I had always admired the green steel capped Advocate more than the brown steel capped one, but somehow that Advocate is not in my collection … the black, military green, and steel makes a very pleasing combination for me … and as you can see, the nib is a regular large one found in Deccan Masterpiece fountain pens …

Posting the cap makes it heavy at the barrel end and therefore one has to hold the section more firmly than usual while writing … it would be better to use the pen unposted … and since the pen was inked for testing, I tried writing and as expected, the flow is even and the nib smooth … and Zubair said he has taken the pen out after two weeks and I wrote with it and no starting trouble at all … I have seen this amazing feature myself with my Deccan pens and it is one of the outstanding features of Deccan pens and found in very few Indian ebonite pens … I am pleased that this quality continues in this pen too …


As of now, this is the only piece that was made … a sort of prototype model … and Zubair gave it to me for the time being … here are some pics of this new model circa 2014 … 









1 comment:

  1. Hi. Lovely and charming review. I was interested in getting a steel cap model made by woodex. I was wondering what exactly seals the nib in these steel caps? Is there a plastic cap liner or an inner cap ledge? Is the cap a steel band over an ebonite cap? The reason I ask, is i use pigment inks and I feel and the cap seal is quite important to me.i find the Advocate (non steel cap) performs exceptionally well in this regard and was wondering about this steel cap variant. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks

    ReplyDelete